CCTV footage shows the ‘abduction’ that wasn’t

The car in which Sumedh Gulati and his wife arrive
at the hospital. ( Express photo )

Contrary to the Mohali police’s claim regarding the “abduction” of proclaimed offender Sumedh Gulati from the Phase 1 police station by Punjab IG Gautam Cheema, the CCTV camera footage of the entry gate to the private hospital where Gulati was “forcibly taken” shows that Cheema arrived in the hospital in one car while Gulati came later with his wife in another car.

Moreover, Ajay Chaudhry, the other accused named by the Mohali police in the case, is not seen accompanying either of them into the hospital.
The 30-minute CCTV footage, which Newsline has accessed, shows Cheema arriving at the hospital gate in a black car with two men, one of whom is a city-based lawyer, at one minute past midnight on the intervening night of August 26 and August 27.

According to the Mohali police FIR, Cheema arrived at the Phase 1 police station at 11 that night and forcibly took away Gulati to the hospital after “dumping him” in his car. The FIR adds that in all this Ajay Chaudhry was with Cheema. The footage further shows that a minute later, Gulati arrives in a gray Innova being driven by someone else. He gets off the front seat of the car. His wife Maninderpreet Gulati gets off the back seat along with an unidentified man. The three meet Cheema and the two others waiting for them at the gate and all of them are seen calmly walking inside the hospital. The driver of the gray Innova backs the car and parks it in the hospital parking.

The unidentified man who had come in the car that brought Gulati, however, comes out of the hospital gate within a few seconds and is seen talking over the phone. A few minutes later, the police arrive in a private car. The policemen first talk to this unidentified man and then accompany him inside the hospital. Fifteen minutes later, around 12.20 am, the police come out with Gulati in tow and sit in their car and go away.

The lawyer — who had accompanied Cheema in his car — is also seen coming out with the police and Gulati and going away in the black car in which Cheema had come. In the 30-minute footage, there is no sign of Cheema or the other persons who had accompanied the two inside, coming out of the hospital. These were Gulati’s wife and two men, one of whom had come with Cheema and the other with Gulati.

In this footage, there is no sign of Ajay Chaudhry, who, according to his wife was in Delhi that day with her. “The mobile network towers will show that Ajay was in Delhi. We left Delhi for Ambala around 8.30 pm on August 26 and were on the way when the so-called continued…